Lucknow, Feb 3 : A three-day vintage car rally was kicked off from Lucknow to Dudhwa National Park on Friday, with a motto of 'Protect Wildlife-Protect the Tiger'.

"The objective of this rally is to spread the message of protecting wildlife, especially conservation of tigers. We want people to come forward and take charge of protecting tigers. This is the main objective for which we are on this 212-kilometers run," said Sandeep Das, one of the organisers.

About 10-13 vintage cars are participating in the rally. The participants and the organisers will meet forest officials at the park and will take stock of the decline in various species.

Kulbushan, a participant, equated the life of a tiger to that of vintage car, both needing proper attention and care, lest they are harmed.

"Maintenance is very important for vintage cars. So such a run helps to keep these cars in motion which otherwise stop functioning. People don't take care of these vintage cars and then they stop moving. Similarly, the number of tigers is on a decline. So, it is the responsibility of society to take appropriate action to check the extinction of tigers. Thus we have combined both these aspects in this rally," said Kulbushan, a participant.

The basic motive of the run is to accomplish the twin benefit of promoting the conservation of tigers in Dudhwa, and to highlight the vintage cars that are also out of run.

Airtel and HSBC are the main sponsors for the event. The cars belonging to 1911 to 1950 participated in the rally. Austin, Fiat, Hillman, Morris Minor were among the vintage car that ran for the conservation of tigers.

Around 220 kilometers from Lucknow, the Dudhwa National Park is well known for housing tigers. Spread in an area of 490 sq kms, it has around 80 tigers.

Government recently declared Dudhwa and the nearby areas of Kishanpur and Kartaniaghat as critical tiger habitats.

ANI